Fort Bragg in Mendocino County, California — The American West (Pacific Coastal)

Surrounded By Trees

By Barry Swackhamer, July 22, 2016

1. Surrounded By Trees Marker

Caption: Lucy Cooper and her baskets. She is survived by children and grandchildren living in our community.

Inscription. Long ago, young Lucy Cooper became annoyed by the wind that blew her clothing around. She brought sacred acorn meal from her house and offered it to the wind. The wind stopped.
Lucy Cooper's Pomo village, called Kah-la-deh-mun, "surrounded by trees," provided her people with a summer site for collecting the plentiful coastal foods.
An accident alerted Europeans to the trees for which Lucy's village was named. In 1850, the San Francisco bound brig Frolic wrecked on a reef a few miles to the south. When Jerome Ford arrived to salvage the cargo, he "discovered" the redwood forests. Within a few years, lumber mills operated at nearly every cove along the coast. In 1856, a military base, called Fort Bragg, was built to control native people so that commerce could take advantage of newly-found richer.
Lucy Cooper could not stop the influx of settlers. Nor could she halt the removal of her people from these bluffs and the deadly march to a Covelo reservation. When she and her husband escaped the reservation and returned here, she found that a lumber mill had replaced her home.
Nevertheless, Lucy stayed and rebuilt her life here, creating the woven baskets for which she is now famous. She passed away in 1945.

Erected by City of Fort Bragg.

Location.

By Barry Swackhamer, July 22, 2016

2. Surrounded By Trees Marker

39° 27.12′ N, 123° 48.66′ W. Marker is in Fort Bragg, California, in Mendocino County. Marker can be reached from West Elm Street near Glass Beach Drive. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 398, Fort Bragg CA 95437, United States of America.

Credits. This page was last revised on August 7, 2016. This page originally submitted on August 7, 2016, by Barry Swackhamer of San Jose, California. This page has been viewed 173 times since then and 10 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on August 7, 2016, by Barry Swackhamer of San Jose, California.